


The Memories that Never Were

by Jimmy_Rustled_Bird



Series: Wondrous Tails FFXIV Scraps and Scribbles 2020 [3]
Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Holding Hands, Memory Related, Nightmares
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-03-01 18:35:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 709
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23871724
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jimmy_Rustled_Bird/pseuds/Jimmy_Rustled_Bird
Summary: Some memories are so powerful that even if your mind forgot, you body did not.  Some hurts run so deep they cross lifetimes with you.  But there is always that one person who unfailingly makes it hurt just a little less.
Relationships: Foulques & Original Female Character, Foulques & Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV)
Series: Wondrous Tails FFXIV Scraps and Scribbles 2020 [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694854
Comments: 4
Kudos: 11





	The Memories that Never Were

It was raining again in the Twelveswood. Mingxia was supposed to have returned bells ago. While not overly concerned (so he said), Foulques ventured out to go find her. He had nothing better to do, so he claimed, and he had a feeling he knew where she was. She'd said earlier some of the folks in North Shroud needed a hand.

She wasn't hanging around in Fallgourd Float- probably still outside, doing whatever favours she was supposed to have been up to. He searched the area, taking a leisurely pace and skewering any wildlife foolish enough to pick a fight with him.

He didn't expect to find her peering over the edge of the cliff infested by ziz, surrounded by the corpses of some recently slain beasts.

"Not that it is any of my business, but if you stay so close to the edge, one of these beasts will punt you over.” He leaned against a tree, watching her. She didn’t move.

She turned back to him, face and hair dripping with rain. Her eyes looked oddly haunted and red-rimmed, though perhaps it was a trick of the light. It was sunset- or should have been, if not for this blasted rain.

"Sorry," she said, her voice wobbling over the "r". "Lost track of time."

"You seem unsettled." He approached and crouched beside her.

"I guess," she said, scrubbing at her eyes- getting the rain out of her face, probably (had she been crying?). "I don't- I don't know why. Something about this place just feels...feels... _ empty. _ Stupid, right?" She tried to smile.

He swiped the water off his face and pulled an oiled cloth over their heads. "That dream again?" 

"Is it a dream?” she turned to peer over the edge. “This hungry abyss…”

"It feels too real. The phantom pains ache." He crouched beside her. "Do not dwell on them, lest you further empower its hold on you."

"I know. The rational part knows. It's just...this spot. They-they wanted me to hunt the ziz, thin their ranks. I did but...last one fell over and..."

He didn't say anything more, peering over the side of the cliff with her. The dead ziz was a bright yellow stain on the outcrop below. He waited for her to continue. He knew from experience- it never did any good to keep these things in.

"It feels too much like a memory. Like...once I was here, and lost someone precious to me.  _ You _ ." She stretched her hand over the edge of the cliff, as if reaching for someone who was falling. "...even my fingers seem to remember. Trying to catch someone...and missing. Sometimes I hear the screaming. Sometimes I hear the faintest echo of a body hitting the ground." She fell silent, gritting her teeth. Water ran in rivulets off her hand.

He silently took her hand. She glanced up at him in surprise, her fingers closing over his. His strong, warm grip settled her. This was how it should be. This felt  _ right _ .

"There. You have caught your quarry. All you must do is win, and you will not come back empty-handed."

She stared hard at him, her eyes shimmering weirdly in the low light. "I-I will not come back empty-handed."

"Good. Come then. You have a job to finish, do you not? It would not do to keep the client waiting- and I somehow doubt you can haul ziz carcasses back on your own."

"I'm plenty strong, thank you kindly. I don’t think they need the carcasses though. They never told me to bring any back, and I’m pretty sure these things aren’t edible. Still, it would be nice to have another witness, if I get the one that likes to harangue adventurers."

“There is someone like that there?” Foulques asked.

“So I hear.” Mingxia replied.

“Hah! Mayhaps it would be entertaining if you got that one then. T’would be amusing to watch you tear them a new one.” Foulques laughed.

“Ugh, I’d rather not. I’m tired and soaked.” 

They chatted all the way back to the Float, talking about this and that. She would say, if anyone asked, that it was because of her blindness. 

Neither of them let go of the other’s hand.

**Author's Note:**

> 3am shenanigans. Wondrous Tails fill, caught in the rain.


End file.
